MEDVARA KALA, India–Last month, Umapati Devi, a day-laborer, chatted with a colleague about future weddings in this village in eastern India, she recalled in an interview.

When it came to a 23-year-old student whose family is from the village but lived in New Delhi, Ms. Devi told her colleague that when the young woman married, “It will be big” because she was poised to launch into a physiotherapy career. Most of the villagers are employed in small time agriculture.

Instead, the village gathered Saturday for a very different ceremony — a feast to mark the end of the traditional 13-day Hindu mourning period following the young woman’s death Dec. 29. She died of injuries sustained when she was beaten and gang-raped on a moving bus in India’s capital Dec. 16, police say.

Mrs. Devi, 45 years old, was one of many villagers who helped prepare the feast.

The young woman, whose name has been withheld in accordance with Indian law on naming rape victims, “is no more,” Mrs. Devi said. “But that doesn’t stop me from working for her.” She added that her family has been working on the farmland of the victim’s family for generations.

A close relative of the victim was managing the feast. He received guests, including the representatives of various political parties who attended.

The young woman “was supposed to visit us in the village in next few months,” he said.

The victim last visited the village, a collection of small houses amid fields, four years ago. Then, she told the relative that she will visit the village for a longer duration this time and looked forward to eating the fresh fruit that farmers there grow.

The feast, which was attended by about 2,000, included cottage cheese, puffed breads, fried rice—some of the woman’s favorite dishes, the relative said. The villagers sat on the ground in long lines as they ate.

It started about two hours late on a chilly winter’s afternoon as the attendees waited for local Brahmins, the priestly caste at the top of the Hindu caste hierarchy, to take the first bite to mark the beginning of the feast, in accordance with tradition.

According to the mourning ritual, at least 16 Brahmins must be fed first and have offerings made to them before the feast can be declared open for those who belong to other castes.

“May her soul rest in peace,” said Sanjeev Kumar Pandey, 40, who succeeded his grandfather as a priest to the family. The other Brahmins, all from his family, were “busy,” hence the delay, said Mr. Pandey. He makes a living conducting prayers and rituals in the area.

“It seems that even gods came down and joined us for the feast,” said Mr. Pandey, referring to the dense fog that engulfed the region until late Saturday morning.

Mr. Pandey said he conducted a lengthy ritual during the day for the “peaceful journey of the soul into the next life.” He said the family of the victim offered new clothes, footwear, fruit, and bedsheets, among other things, during the ritual to comfort her in her passage.

The victim’s family left the village about three decades ago for New Delhi where her father sought new work opportunities, eventually landing a job as a loader at Indira Gandhi International Airport. He invested in the education of his daughter and her two younger brothers and she funded her collage tuition by working nights in a call center.

She represented the one-generation social and economic leap upward that millions of fathers hope their children will achieve here. The young woman was cremated in New Delhi shortly after she arrived back from Singapore, where she had been flown to a hospital for specialist treatment.

“The farewell of my daughter should be beautiful,” the father said as he split his time between attending to the rituals and greeting various VIPs as they came to pay their respects.

Politicians from across the spectrum came to his home—some with condolence messages and some with financial assistance for the poor family. Akhilesh Yadav, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, where the village is located, visited the house Friday and gave a compensation check to the victim’s father.

He also promised to open a primary healthcare centre in the village. The nearest hospital is at least 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) away.

The relative recalled that the when the young woman was last in the village, “she saw a death in the village due to lack of nearby medical facilities. She pledged to build a hospital in the village.”

He added: “We want a multi-facility hospital here, but perhaps her soul would be satisfied if a primary healthcare centre is built for now.”

The family has received about three million rupees (about $55,000) in compensation so far from different agencies and is expected to get another two million soon.

Also, the college where the victim studied in Dehradun, in northern India, has offered free education to the two brothers, if they wish to pursue studies there.

“Didi (elder sister) has left us. But we will always be proud of her,” one of her brother said.

Added Srikrishna Khabrar, 18, a high school student: “Our village has the focus of the administration now. We hope we get a road and regular electricity supply.” His views were echoed by many others attending the feast, who wanted better infrastructure in their village.

The woman’s family is planning to return to New Delhi later this week.